The Way Things Have To Be
by Whispering Kage
Summary: This was the way it had to be, no one was happy with it but there wasn't much they could do to change it. Duty outranked love and though it would be hard they would have to learn to cope, and maybe one day they would be happy.


**The Way Things Have To Be**

**Inuyasha/Dance In The Vampire's Bund**

**Summary: This was the way it had to be, no one was happy with it but there wasn't much they could do to change it. Duty outranked love and though it would be hard they would have to learn to cope, and maybe one day they would be happy.**

* * *

_We accept the love we think we deserve._

The sentence kept replaying in his head, haunting him.

It had been a week since he had seen her, her small form wrapped in white and red. Her raven black hair tumbling in natural waves down to her lower back.

Tried blue eyes gazing up at him as she held in her arms a small child.

His child.

He had been forced into a marriage with her, vampire politics once again stepping in. Mina had made the match, though with much reluctance, and like always her word was law.

He was married within days of the decree, joining the Earth clan and the Higurashi clan. Both noble lines of werewolves, though the Higurashi Clan also had a strong line of spiritual powers.

The males were werewolves and the females priestesses.

Of course it was a tactical plan, the humans of Japan were trying to get the mikos and monks to stand up and fight against vampires...with the Higurashi family linked to the Earth clan...they were now bound to protect the Queen.

With the most influential spiritual family now in alliance with the Queen...the rest of the spiritual world would be hard pressed to go against them.

Even though they had werewolves in their clan, a closely guarded secret, they were still the most powerful...the most influential.

To go against them...it was unheard of.

"Akira, how fares your wife?" He blinked out of his thoughts and turned to glance at Mina, she wasn't looking at him but out over the bund.

Her bund.

He cleared his throat, it was always tense when Kagome was brought up around her, after all she loved him and he loved her...yet they were both married to different people

"She's fine." Mina turned to look at him her eyes sad as she let out a small sigh.

"And the boy?" He shifted subconsciously.

"Koji is also doing fine, he shows great potential." It was true, he was already able to partially transform." Mina smiled at the small speck of pride in his voice when he spoke of his son.

The Bund had been around for two years, two years of struggling and fighting.

Now that the Higurashi clan and the Earth clan were joined and under her service they had some breathing room.

It had been a hard decision to make but it had to be done. Plus they both knew they could never be together, not forever...she was to marry a noble and he would have to marry a human woman to bear him a son.

The next generation of her knights.

It still hurt, Akira was hers...and yet she had to give him away to someone else...

"That's good, have you visited them lately?" She was no fool, he spent every waking hour with her, and then some... so she knew he hadn't.

He looked away from her and shook his head, he knew she knew the answer, she just wanted to hear him say it.

"No, but my father has been checking in on them. They are doing well." Of course they were, they weren't living on the Bund surrounded by bloodshed and fighting every day but on the Higurashi's main shrine.

Sunset Shrine.

Kagome refused to let her son be raised in a war zone.

She knew that one day Koji would enter that world, but she wanted him to have a few years, if that, of being a normal child.

He agreed, silently, and had begged Mina to let them stay on her shrine. Mina agreed, it would give her more time with Akira and she wouldn't have to see the face of the woman who was his wife.

While she liked the young woman, truly did she was such a pure hearted soul, yet a part of her would always be jealous of her for being Akira's wife, for bearing him a son.

How she wished...

But alas she was married to the king of all Demons, another political tactic, and was expected to bear him a son as soon as she reached her adult age. While she could bear him a child in her true form he wished to wait. She was fine with that.

They were only husband and wife in name.

He still lived in his castle in the west and she still lived in the Bund.

They were a power couple.

Literally.

The nobles had thrown a fit but had relented she was queen and they couldn't go against her, plus it was for the betterment of their kind so they took it with a grain of salt.

Akira had been upset yet he held his tongue, he had no say.

He was her bodyguard and nothing more.

He had a family.

A wife.

A son.

He needed to realize that. She loved him, she always would but she wanted him to be happy and he would never be happy if things stayed the way they were.

"You should visit her, AKira. She is your wife." The words hurt as they came out yet she didn't show it.

He merely sighed as he slumped in his chair, he knew she was right. As a child growing up...he had hated his father for abandoning him and his mother. Only showing up on certain occasions. He was young then and didn't understand that his father had a duty to the royal family.

He didn't know, which was why it was so easy for him to learn to hate his father.

Even now they were still at ends, he understood now yet that didn't ease the sting of abandonment.

He didn't want his relationship with Koji to be like that.

He also recalled all those nights his mother would cry herself to sleep.

Her eyes dulling every time his father didn't show up like he promised. Kagome was a nice young woman, and already her bright blue eyes were dulling.

Her words echoed in his head.

_We accept the love we think we're worthy of._

She thought she wasn't worthy of love, which was why she accepted the fact that he had left her and their son without much of a fight.

She was already too beaten.

So tired.

So lonely.

He clenched his fist in anger.

She deserved to be be happy, to be loved.

While he loved Mina, she was his first love and his queen, he also had a soft spot in his heart for Kagome. Much like Yuki always would, yet she was his wife.

The mother of his child.

He should at least try to get to know her, to learn to love her.

Mina gave a small sad smile as she watched his body tense, she knew he would try. He was a honorable man and he would try to learn to love his wife.

She knew they would be happy if they just gave each other the chance, and while it left a bitter taste in her mouth she wouldn't try to stop it.

She had her own love life to worry about.

Akira would always be her first love, he would always be _her_ Akira, yet he was also _Kagome's_ Akira.

While she hated sharing she knew she didn't have a choice, she couldn't hold onto Akira when she was married to another man, expected to bear him children.

If she didn't let him go now it would only hurt them all later on.

_"Go."_ It was a low whisper but he still heard it. He shot her a small smile as he stood up and made his way to her. He bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead before standing back up and leaving the room.

Tears gathered in her eyes as she watched him go.

She knew he would come back, but when he did he would be a different person.

A husband.

A father.

It tore at her heart but it was just how things had to be.

_"I love you."_ The words were whispered yet he still heard them as he made his way down the hallway.

Every step hurt, for nineteen years he had been completely devoted to Mina and now he had other obligations, other people that needed him.

Things would be hard but they would all get through it. He would learn to love Mina in a new way, and he would learn to love his wife the way she should be loved.

She wouldn't have to settle for what she thought she was worthy of but for what she deserved.

He would love her the way a man was supposed to love his wife and they would raise their son together.

He would grow up knowing he was loved by both parents and that they loved each other. He would learn there was a way to fulfill your duty and still live.


End file.
